Four Names Emerge on OC Job in Athens

Eight candidates to fill two positions are currently being looked at to fill in the now-departed positions of Mike Bobo and Will Friend, who left for Colorado State last month.

Kurt Roper, Brian Schottenheimer and Randy Sanders are all serious candidates for the vacant quarterbacks/offensive coordinator job while Greg Adkins, Neil Callaway and Shawn Elliott are being considered for the vacant offensive line job according to a source close to the situation.

Georgia could also elevate John Lilly to the offensive coordinator spot and could move up graduate assistant Daniel Inman into the vacant offensive line job.

Roper, who was paid $700,000 last season (according to USA Today) as the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator at Florida, was let go with the rest of Will Muschamp’s staff in December. He had been an assistant under David Cutcliffe at Duke from 2008-2013, where he did “unbelievable things” for the Blue Devils’ offense.

St. Louis Rams offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer is also being considered for the job, but just yesterday Rams head coach Jeff Fisher told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he was not going to change the coordinator job. “I think Brian is an outstanding play-caller. Outstanding play-caller. He’s very organized. He’s an excellent teacher. So you can’t put the record on his shoulders. That’d be very, very unfair.”

Schottenheimer has been the NFL for some time, but met with Alabama their offensive coordinator opening after Jim McElwain left for Colorado State in 2012.

Randy Sanders has been a fixture in southern football since his days at Tennessee in the 1990s. According to USA Today, the Florida State currently makes $500,000 with a bonus maximum of $90,833. He was the offensive coordinator at Tennessee during the Vols’ run to the national title. He is listed as co-offensive coordinator for the Seminoles right now.

Greg Adkins has ties to Georgia from his days coaching in Athens while on staff under Jim Donnan. Adkins is part of a staff that is in transition in the Buffalo Bills, who's coach just activated a clause in his contract where he can leave the team.

Neil Callaway had been the offensive line coach and offensive coordinator in the first five years of the Mark Richt Era in Athens, but moved on to be the head coach at UAB after the 2005 season. He was at UAB until the 2011 season. He’s now at Western Kentucky where he is paid $106,056 according to USA Today.

ESPN’s Mark Schlabach wrote Wednesday that “Lilly might have been auditioning for the offensive coordinator job” and added that “former Florida offensive coordinator Kurt Roper might also be a candidate for the job.”

Sources say the process could get done very soon - possibly before next week.